DENVER, CO -- 10/27/09 --
Colorado WINS, the representative organization
for Colorado state government employees, announced disappointment today
over the decision to impose four additional furlough days on state
employees.
"When furloughs happen, we all pay a price," said Colorado WINS president
Robert Gibson. "The state services we depend on come to a halt, and the
families of workers that provide those services suffer further."
State employee furloughs virtually shut down vital state services,
including those at the Departments of Motor Vehicles and Colorado
Department of Transportation (CDOT).
"These furloughs are program cuts by another name," said Donald Gustin,
CDOT Region 1 Heavy Equipment Mechanic and Colorado WINS member. "We were
hoping instead that state agencies would follow the governor's call to find
additional savings in places like consulting contracts without having to
curtail important front line services that Coloradans rely on. I think this
underscores how little room there is to solve the budget crisis by slashing
services. The bottom line is that we need to decide what kind of state we
want -- one where basic needs are met or one where guardrails go
unrepaired."
Over 15,000 state employees will be affected by the furloughs, cutting
deeper into the wages of working families. While the expected $13,000,000
in wage cuts means extreme hardship for working families, it represents
less than three percent of the state's overall budget shortfall.
"We are talking small change compared with the overall budget shortfall,"
Gibson said. "The real solutions to Colorado's budget crisis lie in finding
innovative ways to save in state government operations, and in expanding
future revenue options for the state."
